Asus Fonepad Debuts At MWC, $249 For US Customers

Phones the size of tablets are a growing trend at this years Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. First Samsung announced the Galaxy Tab 8.0 and that announcement was followed by the Asus Fonepad.

A long-rumored product by Asus, the Fonepad is a 7-inch Android tablet that is also capable of making phone calls.

The Fonepad as rumored features an Intel Atom Z2420 processor and is powered on 1GB RAM. The device also features 3G wireless capabilities and its display pushes out 1,280 x 800 pixels of resolution. The Fonepad’s screen is helped along by a PowerVR SGX540 GPU.

Running on a largely untouched Google Android 4.1 OS the Fonepad delivers all of the games, apps and other software we have come to expect from the mobile/tablet-based OS.

Asus has also thrown in 16GB of built-in storage alongside a microSD card reader that supports 32GB cards.

The phone-ready tablet also includes a 3-megapixel rear camera and a conference ready 1.2-megapixel front camera.

Asus didn’t list the running time for the Fonepad at MWC but the devices 4,270mAH should provide a decent amount of use before a recharge is required.

Asus has managed to do a good job in terms of pricing the Fonepad, the tablet/phablet hybrid will cost just €219, equivalent to $249 USD.

Asus has not yet revealed a US launch date, however by listing a $249 price in US dollars it will likely arrive stateside in the near future.

The Asus Fonepad wasn’t the only phone-capable tablet to be unveiled at MWC, the team at Samsung also announced the Galaxy Note 8.0, a tablet with an 8-inch display and voice capabilities. The Galaxy 8.0 also runs on the Google Android OS.

Believe it or not these are not the first tablets to make phone calls. The HTC Advantage arrived 5 years earlier and allowed for voice calling over bluetooth.

Do you see the value in purchasing a tablet capable of voice calls?

[Image via Engadget]